"Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour" returns to North America for 40 more dates next year, looking to sell another 120,000 tickets

"Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour," which recently became the ninth-top-grossing tour in history, will return to North American arenas in 2014, Billboard can exclusively reveal.

"We're in the process of fiercely booking it," Cirque du Soleil senior VP of touring shows Finn Taylor says. "We're mostly trying to do new markets so we can bring the show to new audiences, but there are some repeats of our more successful markets from the first tour."

Created in a partnership between the Michael Jackson estate and Cirque, "Immortal" will visit small to full-size arenas in the United States, Canada, Mexico and perhaps South America, beginning in March. The Cirque-promoted North American tour will perform in about 40 cities, but specific routing details weren't available at press time.

John Branca, who serves as co-executor of the Jackson estate with John McClain, says the upcoming "Immortal" performances could be slightly different from what audiences have already seen.

"I could see retooling the show in some ways and switching up some elements, but overall the format would stay very similar," Branca says. "There are certain numbers we might redo, but I don't think we would change the entire format."

In August, "Immortal" will once again visit Mexico City's Palacio de los Deportes, where it experienced some of its most lucrative business after grossing $13.2 million from 14 performances in 2012, according to Billboard Boxscore.

"We're positive we can sell another maybe 120,000-140,000 tickets in a second run," says Renato Herrera, executive VP at concert promoter OCESA, which operates the venue.

Herrera says there are also talks about taking "Immortal" to smaller arenas in such South American markets as Colombia, Argentina and Brazil.

Additionally, Cirque is in discussions with international promoters about bringing "Immortal" back to various parts of the world. With 407 shows under its belt, the trek has visited 25 countries on four continents. International dates haven't been confirmed beyond a lengthy run in Dubai, which goes through mid-January 2014.

"It's very tough to do one-offs with this show, because we have to bring all of the equipment with us," Taylor says. "We have to work on establishing some kind of regional leg or regional tour before we can get anywhere. There might be one or two Asian cities that want us, but we need six or seven to make it worthwhile."